In the Philippines, your best will might be the one you write by hand

Philippine law will accept a will you write out entirely by hand, dated and signed, with no witnesses, no notary and no lawyer. Article 810 of the Civil Code says so in one sentence, and in 2020 the Supreme Court confirmed that Philippine courts can probate a will an American citizen made in the Philippines, without it first being proved in her home country. For a British expat with assets in the country, that page, called a holographic will, is the cheapest serious legal protection you can put in place.

It isn't magic, and this article won't pretend it is. A handwritten will still goes through a Philippine court after you die, the house on your wife's land was never yours to leave anyone, and if you get the wording wrong you can accidentally cancel your British will at the same time. All of that is manageable once you know the rules. Here they are.

The mess this solves

Picture the standard case. A British man in his sixties, retired to Cebu or Dumaguete. Filipina wife. A house built on land titled in her name, because foreigners can't own Philippine land. A car, a couple of local bank accounts, maybe a condo bought in his own name. Back in Britain: a pension, some savings, perhaps an old will written years before he emigrated.

When he dies, two legal systems start work on his estate, and neither talks to the other. The Bureau of Internal Revenue expects an estate tax return within a year, at 6% of his estate, and because he lived in the Philippines that means his worldwide estate, not just the local assets. His bank accounts are restricted the moment the bank learns of his death: his widow can withdraw within the first year only by giving up 6% of each withdrawal in withholding tax, subject to the bank's paperwork, and practice varies from branch to branch. If his only will is a British one, it doesn't operate in the Philippines automatically; it has to be proved all over again in a Philippine court, in a process where English law itself must be formally proven as evidence. If he has no will at all, Philippine intestacy maths decides who gets what.

The fix costs almost nothing to put in place and takes an evening: one will for each country, each staying out of the other's way.

What a holographic will is

Article 810 of the Civil Code of the Philippines: "A person may execute a holographic will which must be entirely written, dated, and signed by the hand of the testator himself. It is subject to no other form, and may be made in or out of the Philippines, and need not be witnessed."

That's the whole requirement. Three conditions: entirely in your own handwriting, dated, signed. Written in any language you know, so English is fine. Compare the alternative, a notarial will, which needs three credible witnesses, a notary, signatures on every page, correlative page numbering in letters and a formal attestation clause, any of which can be botched. Expat forums are full of quotes for notarial wills running from ₱15,000 to ₱60,000. A holographic will costs a pen.

The strictness runs the other way, though. One typed line makes it void. Corrections are dangerous: any insertion, cancellation or alteration must be authenticated with your full signature, and courts have voided dispositions over unsigned changes. Never amend. It's a page; write it again cleanly.

And it applies to foreigners. In Gaspi v. Pacis-Trinidad (2020) the Supreme Court held that the will of a US citizen, made in Iriga City, could be probated in the Philippines without first being proved in her home country, and sent the case back to the trial court to check it met Philippine formalities. A British citizen resident in the Philippines is in the same position.

One more rule that catches couples: Philippine law bans joint wills. You and your wife cannot write one document together. Each person writes their own.

How it compares with a notarial will

Most articles sell the holographic will on cost, privacy and simplicity. Half of that is true and half needs qualifying, so here's the scorecard.

At signing, the holographic will wins outright: free, private, done at home, rewritable any time. The notarial will costs real money and involves five other people in your affairs.

At probate, the picture reverses. Every Philippine will, handwritten or notarised, must be proved in court before it passes a single peso; Article 838 allows no shortcut, Philippine law firms commonly quote a year or two even for an uncontested estate, and probate carries its own court fees, publication costs and legal bills. Probate is also a public proceeding, so the privacy of a handwritten will lasts only until it's filed. And the holographic will carries one specific vulnerability the notarial will doesn't: the court must hear at least one witness who knows your handwriting, and if anyone contests the will, the Supreme Court has held the requirement of three such witnesses is mandatory. For a Briton whose old friends are 7,000 miles away, three such witnesses may not exist. The counter-measures are cheap: let your wife and executor watch you write it, keep samples of your handwriting with the will, and keep the original somewhere it cannot be lost, because a lost holographic will is, in practice, a dead one.

So, the verdict. For a straightforward Philippine estate, a condo, vehicles, bank accounts, everything to a family who get along, the holographic will is not just the budget option; for many people in that position it's a perfectly sensible one. For a large estate, a blended family with rival claimants, or any real risk of a challenge, pay for the notarial will or a Philippine lawyer, and treat the cost as insurance.

What you own here, and the land problem

Before writing a Philippine will, be clear about what belongs in it, because the biggest asset in your life probably doesn't.

Foreigners cannot own Philippine land. The land under your house is legally your wife's, and the house itself is at best legally murky; it's often treated as passing with the land, and it is not something to leave by will without advice. The Constitution's one concession, inheritance by "hereditary succession", has been read by the Supreme Court to mean intestate succession only: a foreigner can inherit land automatically as a legal heir, but cannot validly be left land in a will. That cuts both ways. If your Filipina wife dies before you, you can inherit her land as her heir under intestacy, but a clause in her will leaving you the land is exactly the kind of gift that fails. Couples in this position need her will drafted by a Philippine lawyer.

What a British expat's holographic will realistically covers: a condominium unit, which foreigners can own within the 40% foreign quota of a project; cars and motorbikes; Philippine bank accounts; and personal effects. Identify each precisely, condo by title number, accounts by bank and branch, vehicles by plate. If that list sounds modest, remember the restricted accounts: this is the will that determines how quickly your wife can live off your Philippine money, and whether the 6% estate tax gets paid from the estate or from her purse.

Two wills, one plan, and the clause that holds it together

The architecture is simple. Your England and Wales will covers everything you own anywhere in the world except the Philippines. Your holographic will covers only your Philippine assets. English law is comfortable with this: under the Wills Act 1963, a will is formally valid in England if it complies with the law of the place where it was made, so your Philippine handwritten page is recognised at home even though England would not ordinarily accept an unwitnessed will.

The danger is a single boilerplate sentence. Almost every professionally drafted will opens by revoking all former wills. Sign a new English will containing that sentence after your holographic will, and you may have silently cancelled the Philippine one; write "I revoke all my previous wills" at the top of your handwritten page, and you've done the same to your English will. This is not theoretical: the Court of Appeal spent 2023 deciding whether an Indian will's boilerplate revocation clause had cancelled an English one, in Sangha v Sangha, after years of litigation.

Both documents need territorial wording. The holographic will states that it disposes only of assets situated in the Republic of the Philippines and does not revoke any will dealing with assets elsewhere. The English will does the mirror image. Every Expat Legacy will can be drafted with a Philippine carve-out, and the free builder below produces your personalised wording with the limitation clauses already in place. Copy them exactly; this is the one part of the page not to improvise.

Whose law decides who inherits

Filipinos live under forced heirship: children and spouse have fixed shares, and a will can only steer the free portion. British expats often assume the same rules bind them. Usually they don't. Article 16 of the Civil Code says succession to a foreigner's estate, including how much anyone must receive, is governed by his national law, and the Supreme Court applied exactly that in Bellis v. Bellis to disapply Philippine legitimes to a foreign testator. English law has no fixed shares, so your testamentary freedom broadly travels with you. No fixed shares isn't the same as no claims, though: if you die domiciled in England and Wales, an English court can still order provision for a spouse or dependant left short, under the Inheritance Act 1975, so the freedom is from fixed fractions, not from all challenge.

One caveat. That clean result is safest for a Brit who remains UK-domiciled in the English sense. For a man who has made the Philippines his permanent home, English conflict rules can send the question back to Philippine law, and in Aznar v. Christensen Garcia (1963) the Supreme Court accepted exactly that kind of bounce-back and applied Philippine legitimes to a long-settled foreigner. If your plan involves leaving a spouse or child less than Philippine law would give them, and you're settled in the Philippines for good, that's a job for a lawyer.

The practical bits

Probate is unavoidable, so make it easy. Tell your wife and your executor the will exists and where it is. Keep it with your passport-style documents, not hidden where grief has to go hunting. Keep two or three samples of your ordinary handwriting alongside it. If your estate is large or your family complicated, the Civil Code even lets you probate your own will while you're alive, which settles its validity in front of a judge you can still answer.

Money next. Philippine estate tax is a flat 6%, with a return due within one year of death. A Philippine resident's worldwide estate is in scope, softened by a ₱5 million standard deduction and a family-home allowance; a non-resident is taxed on Philippine assets only. Bank accounts are restricted on death, with withdrawals in the first year subject to a 6% withholding, so keep enough accessible outside the estate, in her name, for your wife to run the household while probate runs.

And the tax point that catches people out: leaving the Philippines out of your English will does not take your Philippine assets out of British inheritance tax. Since April 2025, UK IHT follows long-term residence: if you were UK tax-resident in 10 of the last 20 tax years, or you're still inside the 3-to-10-year tail after leaving, your worldwide estate, condo included, is in scope. There's no UK–Philippines inheritance tax treaty, but HMRC generally gives unilateral credit, subject to conditions, for the Philippine tax paid on the same assets, so your family won't pay both in full. A will decides who inherits and how smoothly. It does not decide tax.

Write it this weekend

The whole job, at the kitchen table:

1. List your Philippine assets precisely: condo title number, bank and branch, vehicle plates.
2. Use the builder below: answer a few questions and it produces your personalised copy-by-hand wording as your working draft.
3. Copy the final wording out entirely by hand on plain paper. Every word in your handwriting. No typing, no printing and signing.
4. Date it in full, day, month and year, and sign at the end. No witnesses needed.
5. Don't cross anything out. If you make a mistake, start the page again.
6. Store it safely, tell your wife and executor where it is, and put handwriting samples with it.
7. Diary a review after any marriage, birth, purchase or sale, and rewrite the page when life changes.

The builder produces your personalised wording with the territorial limitation clause, the non-revocation wording that protects your British will and your executor appointment already in place, plus a plain-English instruction sheet on all of the above. What it will never include is a signature line: the printout is a copying guide, and the only version you sign is the one in your own handwriting.

The other half of the plan

A handwritten will works in the Philippines because Philippine law says so. English law says the opposite: a will made in England needs two witnesses physically present, and a beneficiary who witnesses loses their gift. There is no handwritten shortcut for your British accounts, your property back home, or the will that deals with them, and your UK pension death benefits pass separately again, by nomination forms your pension provider holds, outside any will.

That half is what Expat Legacy does. An England and Wales will, built around expat circumstances, drafted to sit alongside a Philippine will without either cancelling the other, and reviewed by a person before your documents are released. A single will is £149; mirror wills for a couple are £249. If you've written the Philippine page correctly, that half is done for the price of a ballpoint. Finish the other half.

Sources

• Gaspi v. Pacis-Trinidad, G.R. No. 229010 (2020), quoting Civil Code Article 810 (Supreme Court E-Library)
• Codoy v. Calugay, G.R. No. 123486 (1999), Supreme Court of the Philippines
• Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, Article 16 (Lawphil)
• Bellis v. Bellis, G.R. No. L-23678 (1967), Supreme Court of the Philippines (Lawphil)
• Aznar v. Christensen Garcia, G.R. No. L-16749 (1963), Supreme Court of the Philippines
• BIR Revenue Regulations No. 12-2018, estate tax (Bureau of Internal Revenue)
• Wills Act 1963, section 1 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Sangha v Sangha (2023) EWCA Civ 660, Court of Appeal judgment
• Wills Act 1837, section 9 (legislation.gov.uk)

Expat Legacy provides England and Wales wills and general information about cross-border estate planning. This article and the free builder are educational tools; no legal advice is being given, and nothing here is advice for your specific circumstances. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change. For Philippine land, disinheritance questions, blended families or contested estates, engage a Philippine lawyer. Legal position stated as at August 2026.